"I need to get my beauty sleep after all the hunting we've been doing at night. I have been burning the candle at both ends," Rosa said.
"I need to return to bed," Selena said.
Atreides knew everyone agreed, though they didn't say so.
Then they all left after giving Selena hugs and kisses, and even Selena's mom and Rosa gave Atreides a hug. Except for Selena and Tezra, well, and her younger sister, he hadn't had hugs from huntresses.
"When Daemon returns, we'll be sure to have you over again and let him meet everyone," Atreides said.
"Yes, we would like that." Then her dad and the others went outside, Daniel taking Rosa home and their parents driving their own car.
Atreides shut and locked the door, then grabbed Selena up in his arms. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and he carried her back to bed.
"Are you staying with me?" she asked.
"Yes. What startled you so when you were sleeping on my lap on the couch?"
"I had a nightmare about being assailed by a barrage of bullets. That has never happened to me before. Fighting a vampire that suddenly appears is one thing, and I'm usually prepared for that. Except for when the vampire attacked me.”
"I'm sorry. I will always regret I wasn't able to protect you better."
She kissed him. "You couldn't have. I shouldn't have been so brash in running into the room to fight them all on my own."
"That's normally your way, sword out and ready for a fight. No one would have expected them to begin shooting,” Atreides said.
"True. So what did you think of my parents?"
"I highly respect them. As far as I'm concerned, your family is my family. And they were completely accepting of me and of our relationship. "
"I'm so glad for that. I'm so sorry about the steak. It was delicious. As fast as my family scarfed them up, I know they loved them too. I just couldn't eat all of it."
"I saved it for you."
"I thought you had said that. Thank you."
"You're welcome." Then he kissed her.
"Make love to me."
He smiled. "When you are all better." He wasn't about to hurt Selena no matter how much she wanted this. Later, he would surely take her up on it.
Two days later, Daemon and Tezra flew in from their vacation in the middle of the night, and Atreides went along to pick them up, as was their custom, their driver driving the limousine. Maison and Voltan were with them. Atreides had wanted to go alone, to iron things out between his brother and him, and not have Selena in the middle of it. He wanted his brother, for the first time to meet her, to be as gracious toward her as her parents had been toward Atreides.
"So how did everything go?" Daemon asked, his brows raised.
"Everything was fine."
"You are seeing a new woman," Daemon said. "Someone I don't recognize."
Atreides should have realized they would smell Selena's scent on him as much as they hugged and kissed each other as new mates.
"About that," Atreides said.
"We know all about it," Daemon said, shocking the hell out of Atreides.
He'd been trying to find the words to tell them what had happened that wouldn't make his brother too angry with him.
"Who told you?" Atreides asked as the driver drove them home.
"The president of the League, Selena's father, her brother, her sister, King of the fringe hunters, Iconia. And a vampire who has come into our territory, though he often runs as a wolf, Quail, who has asked me to allow him to join the clan."
Atreides closed his gaping mouth.
"Why didn't you bring Selena with you?" Tezra asked, smiling at him. "I have met her before, and I know we will become best of friends."
"I wanted to tell you what had happened first." Atreides appreciated that his brother and his mate would trust in him enough to let him accomplish the mission without interfering. "When you learned of what was going on had you wanted to return and take over the clans to resolve the situation?" He had to know the truth. He couldn't imagine Daemon being fine with what had been going on.
"I was having too good a time with Tezra. We needed this time alone. And you needed to prove to yourself that you could handle the difficulty, no matter what."
Atreides was having a difficult time believing that his brother hadn't been chomping at the bit to return home and straighten everything out. It wasn't exactly that Atreides felt Daemon didn't trust him to do the right thing, but that he was always ready to take care of a crisis, whatever it took, and leaving it to his younger twin brother to handle wasn't something he would normally do.
Then Tezra channeled her telepathic communication to Atreides privately, "Yes, he was dying to return home to oversee things. But he knew you were handling things just the way he would have done, and there was no sense in him returning early from our vacation when you were getting a handle on it."
That's what Atreides figured. He wasn't sure Daemon felt that Atreides was handling things just fine. He suspected Tezra had a hand in convincing him to leave well enough alone. And he appreciated her for it.
"How is Selena and her brother?" Tezra asked.
"Her brother is milking his injury for everything it's worth—getting lots of huntresses' attention. Selena is getting much better. She wants to meet you tomorrow night. She figured you would be tired from your journey home, and she would have another day to rest up." Which was true, but Atreides knew she had made the suggestion because she knew how unsure he was about speaking with his brother about this whole situation. Though he thought her resting up for another day was a good idea too.
"That works for us. Did you want to have dinner at our house then?" Tezra asked.
Atreides hesitated. He hadn't thought they would want to have dinner right away after they got home from their vacation and he was wondering if Selena would prefer to be in the comfort of their home, or in Daemon and Tezra's.
"At our house," Daemon said. "She needs to visit with us there since she has never seen the place. We'll prepare dinner. She has been through a couple of ordeals. Let her rest up and we'll treat her to a feast."
"All right. At your house then." Atreides was so relieved all of it was out in the open, even though he thought he was going to have to do a lot of explaining.
"We're proud of you," Tezra said, "Aren't we, Daemon?"
"Yeah, I couldn't have done a better job than you did."
Atreides couldn't have asked for better praise from his brother and he felt so much better about it now. "Thanks. I didn't want to trouble you when I knew I could handle it.” Which Atreides knew for sure, but he just hadn't been so sure his brother would have wanted him to take care of matters. Well, he was actually sure his brother wouldn't have left it up to him to do. Especially if Tezra hadn't had a hand in it. He would have to thank her later. But he had to know, had anything he had done been in secret? “Was everything I was doing reported back to you?"
It bothered him that there were spies in the clans who might have been reporting every little thing back to Daemon. Which reminded him of the dance he’d had with Selena and what all was said about that! And the way he had danced with the fiery huntress before she'd even been turned!